Reflecting can be a great secret that leads you to success in many different areas of your life.
Once a day (and then some) I reflect. I try to look back on everything, from the day I had, my life, what I did right or wrong, and what just flat out didn't work. When I reflect on my life and form the habit of reflection, I always improve self and other areas of my life.
This particular blog topic came from me reflecting on how I accomplish this. I would like to recommend that if you’re reading this and you haven’t found a way to add this to your daily routine, you may want to develop the habit of reflecting. It can help in many different aspects of your life, more than you think
Once a day (and then some) I reflect. I try to look back on everything, from the day I had, my life, what I did right or wrong, and what just flat out didn't work. When I reflect on my life and form the habit of reflection, I always improve self and other areas of my life.
This particular blog topic came from me reflecting on how I accomplish this. I would like to recommend that if you’re reading this and you haven’t found a way to add this to your daily routine, you may want to develop the habit of reflecting. It can help in many different aspects of your life, more than you think
Here are a few.
1. You will learn from your mistakes. If we never look at how our mistakes affect us, we are bound to repeat them. This isn’t smart. Nonetheless, as long as we take time to reflect on our mistakes, think about what went bad, identify ways to avoid them, we can then use our mistakes to better us individually. When looked at this way, mistakes can become priceless learning tools, rather than something to feel discouraged about. Reflecting can be a critical tool when used.
2. It gives you great ideas. Inspiration for things I work on all spawn from ideas that come to me when I reflect.You can look at the current events in your life and reflect on them. If you find that certain areas are not doing well, you can consult with people you know. If you find something has been a success, you then can look at how you got to that point, and can share that too. Doing this tends to spark new ideas which can be use or worked on later.
3. It helps you help others. The idea for this post came to me when I was reflecting on my day, out of nowhere, I said others could benefit from the same as well. In turn this helps me understand how I overcame obstacles, while helping others that may be faced with the same challenges. Situations I have faced throughout life and the military, have taught me that what I have learned can be used to help others. This is incredible when I think about the people that have come to me looking for advice and how I have helped or inspired them.
4. It makes you happier. When you reflect on things you’ve done right, when looking at your successes, it allows you to celebrate each one. This grants you the ability to realize how much you have done right and the great things you accomplished in your life. With reflection not in the picture, we easily forget these accomplishments, and will in turn change you focus to your immediate failures.
5. It gives you perspective. I get it; we all have lives to live. It’s easy to get distracted with the day to day problems we face. High pressure situations or tasks can engulf us at times. Taking a few steps back to reflect on the problems, and how they don’t mean that much, it will calm you down and lower your stress levels. In turn you will gain a different viewpoint. This is always a good thing.
If reflecting is not in your daily routine, how would you fit it in? Here are some ways that will help you do that.
1. Start a one-sentence journal. If you have tried to write a journal in the past and haven’t succeeded, you’ll love this, Try writing down a goal or a simple thought you have in mind at the beginning of the day. When you take the time to reflect at the end of the day go and look at your initial goal. You’ll be amazed when you look back and see a year’s worth of entries. The best thing about it is this will only take a minute out of your day.
2. Focus on doing it at the same time, every day. No exceptions. Even if you don’t make it around to starting a one sentence journal, try to form the reflection habit by taking a few minutes at the end of every day. Writing it down will help bring form to your reflections. Make sure you dedicate time to it every day at the same time and place, with no excuses whatsoever.
3. Exercise. This is one of my favorite times to reflect. I find it works best when I am biking or running. In that time I think about my life, and work. Some of my best ideas magically pop into my mind during this time. If you’re not into running or don’t have another form of exercise, think about reflecting during an evening walk.. Just make sure to set a time for it daily and don’t miss it.
4. Think about your day, your work, your life. In this exact order. I like to reflect on my day, in this time I think about what I did that was right and wrong, and what I can work on. I look at work just to mentally make a note of how things went for the day. Then I take a look at my life in its entirety. This system, over time, leads to lots of improvement personally and professionally.
5. Blog about it. If you are writing about your reflections on your own personal blog, a group you belong to, or a BlogSpot account viewable by friends and loved ones, you will be accountable for providing content to a group of people. By sharing your reflections with others, people may start to read and look forward to them, this will create a positive pressure to keep it up. That is what I have done with this blog and it has been a great decision for me.
-Hiydrus
No comments:
Post a Comment